Time turned back slightly.
The Second Squad was on its way out of the city for another demon Subjugation.
The sun had already set, meaning this battle would take place under the cover of night.
It was Ethel's first time providing battlefield support in darkness.
Even with night-vision goggles, he couldn't guarantee he wouldn't make a mistake.
"Relax. Don't worry so much."
"We brought illumination equipment."
Cypher tried to reassure him.
Seeing Ethel's pale face, he assumed the young man was simply nervous about fighting in the dark.
With the First Squad temporarily out of commission, just as Cypher had said during the meeting, he would accompany the other squads on their missions.
Soth had no objections to having another veteran join them.
As it turned out...
Cypher never even had a chance to help.
The demon was extremely cautious.
The instant it spotted the first person, it attacked without hesitation.
Unfortunately...
...that first person was Soth.
His body instinctively activated his concept.
Concept: Rebound.
The invisible wall of reflection effortlessly sent the attack flying back the way it came.
Because the incoming strike had been so powerful, almost none of its momentum was lost during the rebound.
The boulder that had been launched at Soth shot back like a cannonball—
—and smashed straight through the demon's head before it could react.
"Concept: Spi—"
Yasin had only just finished identifying its concept before looking up.
What greeted him...
...was a headless demon quietly dissolving into ash.
Not only him.
Cypher and every other squad member simply stared blankly at the scene before them.
Some of them hadn't even gotten a clear look at the demon before it disappeared completely.
"What a waste of time."
"Idiot."
"Return to base."
Soth rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful before leading the squad back toward Sunblaze City.
When the Second Squad returned to the underground headquarters, two people were already waiting for them.
One of them approached Cypher and whispered something into his ear.
Cypher's expression immediately tightened.
Without another word, the two hurried away together.
The other person waiting there was a silver-haired woman.
"Yo, Ethel."
"Yinbing?"
"You guys got back pretty early."
"Come with me."
As they walked through the streets, Yinbing couldn't stop laughing.
"Hahaha..."
"So you're telling me..."
"...that demon got killed by its own attack?"
"Hahahaha..."
"Yeah."
"I didn't even get to see what it looked like."
"This might actually be the shortest Subjugation in history."
"Hahahaha... I can't..."
"My stomach hurts..."
She doubled over, laughing so hard she could barely breathe.
Only after quite some time did she finally calm down.
"So..."
Ethel asked again.
"Where are we going?"
"You haven't had dinner yet, have you?"
"Not yet."
He'd been on his way to the cafeteria when the alarm suddenly sounded, forcing him to abandon dinner and deploy with the Second Squad instead.
"We're getting dinner."
"Where?"
"You'll see."
Eventually they stopped in front of a building that looked strangely familiar.
It was the same bar they'd visited after the welcome party.
"A bar?"
"Yep."
"The owner's cooking is amazing."
"Come on."
Still a little skeptical, Ethel followed Yinbing inside.
"She climbed out through the window?"
Oenone and the members of the First Squad stood before the open window, completely at a loss.
A few minutes later, Cypher arrived as well.
"Tia's gone?"
"Yeah."
"Weren't you out on a mission?"
Oenone had expected him to be away for several more hours.
Instead, he'd returned almost immediately.
"We finished."
Leaning against the windowsill, Cypher searched for any trace Tia might have left behind.
Unfortunately, the others had already checked.
He found nothing.
"Can anyone think of somewhere she might have gone?"
Everyone exchanged uncertain glances.
No one had an answer.
Hardly anyone knew anything about Tia's private life.
"We'll split up."
"Let's move."
The men quickly left the room.
Only Oenone remained behind, silently staring at the open window.
"...Tia."
Deep down...
...Oenone thought she knew where Tia might have gone.
But she kept that thought to herself.
She wanted the chance to meet Tia alone.
She didn't want anyone else finding her too soon.
If her guess was correct...
...Tia would be there.
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Oenone moved silently across the rooftops of the Lower District.
The buildings here were much shorter than those in the city center. There were no towering skyscrapers, making it effortless for a Perfected One like her to travel from roof to roof while avoiding unwanted attention.
Following the map in her hand, she made her way toward her destination.
The farther she went, the more dilapidated the neighborhood became.
Eventually, she arrived at the oldest and poorest part of the district.
Her eyes settled on a nearby rooftop.
Someone was sitting there.
"Tia."
Tia hugged her knees without saying a word.
She didn't even react to Oenone's arrival.
Her gaze remained fixed on the house below.
Through its window, an elderly woman could be seen having dinner with a group of children.
Oenone sat down beside her, quietly watching the scene inside.
"Do you want to go down and see them?"
"...I don't have the right."
"I failed everyone."
Tears shimmered in Tia's eyes.
Ever since she had returned, Oenone hadn't seen her cry once.
"You're putting too much pressure on yourself."
"It's the responsibility of a captain."
"Protecting Sunblaze City isn't one person's responsibility."
It was the same sentence Cypher and Oenone had repeated countless times—
—and the same sentence Tia refused to accept.
She didn't answer.
Somewhere along the way...
...the reason she had first chosen this path had quietly changed.
Now...
...all she wanted was to stop anyone else from dying.
Even now, the image of Posius dying before her eyes still haunted every night, dragging her awake from endless nightmares.
Yet even after waking...
...the suffocating weight in her chest never disappeared.
To Tia...
...life itself had become one endless nightmare.
A nightmare...
...where no hero would ever appear again.
Oenone had rehearsed countless things she wanted to say.
Yet now that she was sitting beside Tia...
...none of the words would come.
She simply didn't know how to comfort the friend who had once been closest to her.
Inside the orphanage, dinner came to an end.
The elderly woman clapped her hands, sending the children off to do something else.
Perhaps they were washing up before bed.
Perhaps it was time for dessert.
Once they moved beyond the window, neither woman could see them anymore.
Even after everyone disappeared from sight...
...Tia continued staring into the empty room.
This was where she had grown up.
She had once sat around that very table.
One day, as a child, she had accidentally witnessed the orphanage director—
the woman who had struggled alone to raise every child—
begging someone in a trembling voice.
She had even fallen to her knees before him.
The sight had shaken young Tia to her core.
Things only grew worse after that.
The debt collectors came more and more frequently.
Even worse...
...bruises began appearing on the director's face.
She always smiled and told the children everything was fine.
Tia had never believed her.
To Tia...
...the director was her mother.
She couldn't bear watching things continue like that.
She didn't know how much money the orphanage owed.
But she knew it had all been borrowed for the sake of the children.
That made her feel like she was only another burden the director had to carry.
Desperate to change things, she began working part-time.
After learning how well Force Users in the Combat Division were paid, she devoted everything she had to entering the Force User Academy, earning a full scholarship through sheer effort.
After paying her tuition, she sent almost every remaining cent back to the orphanage.
Even when the director repeatedly refused to accept the money...
...Tia kept sending it anyway.
She thought that would eventually erase the orphanage's debt.
Yet the bruises on the director's face told her otherwise.
Still too young to understand what loan sharks were...
...Tia believed the answer was simply to work even harder.
So she did.
She graduated with outstanding results and joined the First Squad.
The moment she received her first salary...
...she rushed back with every coin she could spare.
Nothing changed.
She didn't know what else to do.
Then...
...Posius appeared.
After learning the truth from the director, he immediately crushed the criminal organization responsible.
To the orphanage...
...he was their savior.
To Tia...
...he became her hero.
And that hero...
...had died because of her.
She no longer dared return to the orphanage.
She was terrified everyone would learn the truth.
After returning to duty...
...she had only one goal.
She would become the hero Posius had been.
Just as he had once illuminated the darkness within her heart...
...she would become the sun that illuminated the entire city.
She devoted herself to that purpose.
She refused to let anyone else die the way Posius had.
Yet in the end...
...she still failed.
Her own decisions had led to the deaths of her teammates.
Perhaps...
...if she had listened to them from the beginning and fought alongside them...
...none of it would have happened.
But she had refused.
And the result...
...was the deaths of Michael and Tier.
They had been among the few remaining survivors of the First Squad once led by Leon.
They had fought beside her ever since she first joined the squad.
Now...
...they were gone forever.
She couldn't face reality.
She couldn't face her teammates.
She couldn't face Oenone.
She couldn't even face herself.
Not knowing where else to go...
...her body had moved on its own.
It had brought her to the place her subconscious longed to return to.
The place where her mother was.
Her home.
Beside her, Oenone watched Tia struggle to keep her tears from falling.
More than anything...
...she wanted to save her.
But she knew...
...she was never going to be the person capable of doing that.
At that moment, the orphanage door opened.
The elderly woman stepped outside carrying a bag of garbage and walked toward an empty lot nearby.
Tia's eyes followed her the entire time.
Oenone desperately wanted to take Tia downstairs.
But she knew forcing the issue would only make things worse.
Just as the woman turned to go back inside and reached for the door—
she suddenly stopped.
She looked toward the two indistinct figures sitting on the distant rooftop...
...and gently waved at them.
Inside the bar around the corner, Yinbing and Ethel chatted after finishing dinner.
Ethel still had no idea why Yinbing had gone out of her way to bring him here.
Seeing the confusion on his face deepen, Yinbing decided to abandon subtlety.
She honestly hadn't known how to ease into the subject anyway.
"Ethel..."
"...how exactly did you train back then?"
"...I don't want to talk about it."
"You know..."
"After my sister died, I shut myself away for a long time."
"I kept thinking I could hear her voice."
Ethel's attention immediately shifted toward her.
Yinbing noticed.
"Later..."
"People kept talking to me."
"They helped me realize I wasn't alone."
"Little by little..."
"...I finally spoke about what was inside my heart."
"And after I said it out loud..."
"...I felt lighter than I'd ever felt before."
"The past didn't change."
"But I finally had the strength to keep moving forward."
"Ethel..."
"I don't know what happened to you."
"And I won't force you to tell me."
"I just want you to know..."
"...if you're willing..."
"...we're all here for you."
Ethel listened quietly to every word.
His pitch-black eyes met Yinbing's silver ones.
This time...
...she saw it.
The overwhelming darkness buried deep within them.
"...I keep hearing my mother's voice."
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